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IF, THEI, AND WHEI, 



1 



FROM THE 



Doctrines of the Church, 



BY 

WARREN SUMNER BARLOW, 

AUTHOR OP 

"The Voices," and other PoEMt.. 

Ekjhth Edition Just Published. 







BOSTON, MASS.: 
COLBY & RICH. 

1878. 



S 

M 






x^ 



?7« 



Entcre(1 accordino: to Act of Congress, in the yenr 1S7S, by 

W . S . B A U L O W , 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Trow's 

Printing and Bookrinding Co., 

205-213 /':asi \2th St., 

NEW VOKK. 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 



If the God of all perfection, 

Infinite in love and power, 
Knew the end from the beginning, 

As He comprehends an hour — 

Modeled man in His own image, 

Clothed him with His love and tnith, 

Cheered him with His benediction. 
Crowned him with immortal youth— 



If the Devil from high heaven, 
God's archangel from His throne, 

Stole this image of perfection, 
Single-handed and alone — 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

If this God of blissful Eden, 

Thus defeated in Ilis plan, 
Grieved in sorrow, cursed His offspring, 

And repented making man — • 

If to rescue man fi'om Satan, 
Failing first, He sent His son. 

With the suicidal off ring 

Of the God-head, tliree in one : 

[Sidcidal f do 3^on ask me ? — • 
Bj Himself] His death was planned ; 

By His will, His life was taken, 
As if taken by His hand. 

Angels were at His disposal — 
Legions of tliem at His will ; 

But His death by His appointment. 
Only could His mission fill. 

Yet if Jesus was but mortal, 
And like other martyrs died, 



IF THEN, AND WHEN 

111 the cause of human progress, 
This jjlain, truth is not denied. 

But if Jesus was Jehovah, 

And the means by which He died, 
Like His death were self-determined, 

God is tlien a suicide ! ] 

Wiio can measure such delusion ? 

How could Satan make it worse ? 
Oh let reason brand tlie falsehood, 

To helieve it, is the curse ! 

Jesus in His sad departure. 
From the cross on Calvary, 

In loud accents cried, "My Father, 
Why hast Thou forsaken me ? " 

If a s7cej)tiG, when departing, 

Should rehearse that doleful knell. 

Every narrow-minded pi-eacher 
Would consign his soul to hell ! 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

And the Church with exultation 
Would proclaim it far and wide, 

As a proof that he recanted, 
And with condemnation died. 

Skepticism — friend of progress — 

Source from which new truths unfold, 

Foretaste of a hopeful future. 
More than prophet hath foretold. 

Jesus was a noble skeptic. 

And denounced the darkened past — 
Boldly, higher truths revealing. 

He was sacrificed at last. 

Then, as now, benighted bigots 

Would the heights of progress storm ; 

Would debar the light of heaven, 
From all leaders of reform. 

Cutting short His earthly mission, 
Jesus joins the heavenly band — 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

Mounts the throne of the Eternal, 
And thus pleads at God's right hand : 

" Oh, my Father, let not anger 
Longer breathe eternal death ; 
May compassion and forgiveness 
Warm Thy cold, relentless breath ! 

" Oh, restore the race of Adam 
To their high primeval state ; 
Why must Satan longer hold them 
As the subjects of Thy hate ? 

" Thy vindictive wrath liatli ever 
Sharpened Satan's fiery blade ; 
With two foes thus siiigle-handed 
Darkness doth my hopes invade. 

" Darkness doleful and eternal. 

Where the lost will curse their sire. 
As they rise upon the billows 
Of their boundless lake of fire." 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

Thus the yearly contest rages 

With its eighteen hundred rcmnds; 

Each to gather in their subjects. 
When at last the trumpet sounds. 

If, despite the triune God-head, 
As we read, " but few are saved," 

And the race yet '' heirs of Satan," 
Still is " totally depraved "— 

Then the powers of the Eternal 
Are corrupted at their source ; 

And God's purposes are blasted 
By a self -destructive force ! 

From one source came all existence ; 

From one cause came all effects ; 
From one centre universal 

All unfolds as cause directs. 

If two sources, g(X)d and evil. 
Seem to wage a war on earth, 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 



One must antedate Jehovah, 
Else Jehovah gave it birth. 



Surely both cannot be senior, 
And the God whom we adore, 

Infinite in love and wisdom, 
Never hath a demon bore ! 

Satan — hoary myth of ages, 

How thy hackneyed visage pales- 

Too transparent for a shadow. 
Where the light of truth prevails. 

If from God's divine dominions 

Came the Devil — strange to tell- 
To invade the bowsers of Eden, 
Capture earth, and people hell — 

If the great primeval Fountain — 

Source of purity and love, 

Pours a flood of foul corruption 

From its pearly gates above — 
1* 



10 IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

Then the iiDiversal standard 
Of all logic is reversed ; 

And to be endowed with i-eason, 
Is to be profoundly cursed ! 

If the few ordained for heaven 
Were determined ere their birth, 

How could Jesus save another 
By riis cruel death on earth ? 

If the masses doomed to burnings 
Were created for their fate, 

To secure another victim 
Even Satan came too late. 



Hell and Satan — strange delusions — 
Blinders to the sense of thongljt, 

Millstones to the necks of mortals. 
Which an age of darkness w^rought. 



Can the errors of a moment, 
On the ebbing wave of time, 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 11 

Doom immortal souls forever, 
To a dark abjssmal clime? 

Yet no sin can go niipiinished, 
While all virtue brings rewards ; 

Vice and virtue each receiving 
Their legitimate awards. 

Pain and pleasure — truthful teachers — 

Equal partners in our cause ; 
One to lead^ and one to guide us, 

Ruled bj heaven's benignant laws. 

Thus all wayward, doubting mortals 
Are like children taught the way 

To a better understanding 
Of the laws they must obey. 

By these loving admonitions 

Every soul will learn to rise 
Fi-om the low^est depths of folly 

To the wisdom of the skies. 



12 IF TEEN, AND WHEN. 

If there be but one immortal 
' Doomed to everlasting pain, 
The disaster is appalling, 

And all hope in God is vain ! 

If the infinite Jehovah, 

By a fragment of His power, 

Was defeated in His purpose 
In a weak unguarded hour — 

If the Great First Cause of causes, 

By a plan He did project. 
Was invaded by disastei-. 

Thwarted by its dire effect — 

Then farewell to all our logic ; 

All our schools of thought may pause ; 
All our highest hopes are blasted. 

By effects defeating cause! 

When a grain outweighs a mountain, 
Or a stream o'erflows its source : 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 13 

Or the shadow of an object, 
Takes its prototype by force — • 



When the moon, in sunbeams floating 
O'er the ebon arc of night, 

Far out-rivals all the glory 
Of her only source of light — 



When the dust outrides the tempest. 
And the raging storm defies, 

Or a fragment of a sunbeam 

Rules the monarch of the skies — 

When we bar the boundless ages 
By a single thread of time, 

Or a breath of fancied discord 
Breaks the universal chime — 

Then the strange, delusive story 
May be better understood, 

Of a self-appointed rival 
'^p Uie fountain of all good I 



14: IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

By effects we learn of causes, 
. As by fruit we learn the tree, 
Wliile the product of all forces 
With their sources must agree. 

But as no effect is equal 

To the cause which dotli project, 
If the Devil was created 

He must suffer this defect. 

Then what greater power than Satan 
Brought him forth in vile tirade? 

He nmst be, if reason serves us, 
By a bigger Devil made. 

If to thus expose these errors 

Seems to savor of abuse, 
How mucli %oorse to entertain them 

And to bring them into use ! 

Ignorance and superstition 
To the Evil One gave birth ; 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 15 

Coinmon sense with coinmoii reason 
Drives the Devil from the earth. 

Yet if Satan were discarded 

From all pnlpits in the land, 
ISot one preacher in a thonsand 

Could his absence long withstand. 

Some may question this assertion, 

Saying, "Christ is all in all," 
While the battle still is rau'ino; 

For the victims of the fall. 

Hence, to sever Christ from Satan 

Ends forever the device 
Of redemption from the Devil 

By atoning sacrifice ! 

The atonement ! — vain conception — 
Cause and comforter of crime — 

Opiate to good endeavor — 
Bohun Upas tree of time I 



16 IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

Oh, how many crimes are nui'tured, 
Lured and led by this device ; 

Murderers upon the gallows 
Swing from earth to paradise ! 

Still this potent source of error 
Is the bulwark of the ci-eeds ; 

To helieve it is relitrion, 

Eather than fraternal deeds. 

And oppression's gilded fortress, 
Like an adamantine wall, 

Bids defiance to the thoughtful, 
Ruling or denouncing all. 



Thus while truth was dimly burning, 
Stifled in a loathsome vault. 

And the age of superstition 

I^ade the march of trutli to halt — 



Then the weary thinkers pondered. 
With their faces to the skies ; 



IF THEN, AND WHEN IT 

And with liopes and fears were tortured, 
As they reasoned in this wise : 

" If God chose to save and could not, 
Frailt}' coupled good intent ; 
If He really could and would not, 
Vengeance He ordained and sent. 

■' Thus the doors of hope are bolted 
By the rusty locks of time ; 
For we want no God of weakness. 
While we spurn a God of crime ! 

" li there be a God, His purpose 
Naught of evil can befall ; 
To believe in any other, 
Better have no God at all ! " 

Then the angels, ever watchful, 
Listened as in love they came ; 

Through tlieir hopes and fears they entered, 
With a spark of heavenly flame. 



IS IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

Like a burning constellation, 
. Like the sun in ffloom of niocht. 
Like the beanis of nntokl glory, 

A\^inged this new-fledged orb of light. 

It ilhiraed the darkened corners. 
Error sped before its flight. 

And the voice of trntli and reason 
Welcomed this effulgent light 

Bigotry and superstition 

Faded like dissolving views ; 

In their stead came firm endeavor, 
To examine and to choose. 

God was then proclaimed our Father : 
By His wisdom all was planned ; 

By His love His will Avas written ; 
By His power it e'er will stand. 

By fraternal deeds we triumph, 
As by truth we learn to rise ; 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 19 

While in our illumined pathway 
Naught but error ever dies. 

As we scatter wheat or thistles, 

We must gather what we sow ; 
No less true in heaven's dominions 

Than in earthly spheres below\ 

Law^s immutable forever 

Span the universe sublime ; 
While the same unerrino: standard 

Permeates the laws of time. 

Oh, despondent, creed-bound brother, 

Break the fetters that entwine. 
Rise to freedom from oppression 

To an atmosphere divine ! 

There among the countless millions 

No archangel e'er can fall ; 
Upward, onward — A forever 

Is the destiny of all. 



20 IF THEN, AND WHEN. 

Can the transient deeds of mortals, 
- On this frail and fickle shore, 
Hivst all the coming ages 
To a changeless evermore ? 

If there be a fixed condition, 

Where no higher truths are taught. 

Where the soul will perch forever 
On its topmost round of thought — 

Then dissolve my aspirations 
With this tenement of dust ; 

Better far annihilation. 
Than eternally to rust ! 

Or, if Satan, wliile an angel, 
To the burning regions fell ; 

Angels all may yet be Devils, 
And all Paradise a hell ! 

Cease ! oh, mortals, cease to languish 
In this barren field of thou2:ht, 



IF THEN, AND WHEN. 21 

Where the myths of superstition 
Into dismal creeds are wrought. 

For the all-pervading fountain 
Lights our hopes with holy iircs ; 

New attainments ever bringing 
With new^ pleasures, new desires. 

Unborn ages still to greet us, 

With new glories to unfold — 
Co-eternal wdtli Jehovah, 

Ever telling, 7iever told. 



TesUvwniah. 

From the many critical notices and reviews of " THE VOICES,^* 
■U)e have only room for a few brief extracts. 

Judge Baker of New York, in hie elaborate review of *' THE 
VOICES," says : " Considered in the light of a controverBial or didactic 
poem, it is without an equal in contemporaneous literature— the birth ol 
an audacious mind, and is destined to excite greater and more wide en- 
circling waves of sectarian agitation than any anti-credal work ever pub- 
lished." 

Prof. S. B. Brittan, in his able review of the work, says : *' In tht 
Voice of Nature the author gives us a clearer insight into iiis own views 
of the material world, of human nature and God. He has a rational phi 
losophy of the relations of mind and m:itter, and his tlieology is at once 
natural and charitable. He recognizes one God everywliere, present alikn 
in the physical world and in His moral universe. The God he adors, 
and his strong faitb in the goodness that rules the world, are cloarly n> 
\'i"'Rled and forcibly expressed in the following parnphrastic and pootica. 
fcudirhig of a beautiiul passage in the Sermon on the Jlounl . 

Will He who hears the r;ivens« when the.\ cry, 

Mock and deride thee when no hope is nii:li ? 

Will He who clothes the lilies of the (.eid. 

That neither toil, nor spin, nor raim. ut ylek! ; 

Who feeds the fowls that never reap nor f 0'\ — 

Extends His watchful care where'er they go . 

Will lie who clothes the grass which is to-day, 

Wliile all its beauty quickly fades away, 

Forget His image— His immortal child I 

Is he alone derided and defiled ? 

Or left to tread the downward thoroughfas 

With Satan to bewilder and ensnare. 

And urge him on to death and dark despaij 7 
• O, ye of little faith ! ' let reason sway: 

Are not your souls more precious far than they f 

William 11. Burleigh, a well-known author and poet, in one of his 

contributions to the Chicago Evening Post, thus speaks of the autlior and 
"THE VOICES :" "That he is a bold, earnest m.m, with very pro 
nounced opinions, that he has a combative and incf jive way of stating 
those opinions, and that,beloAv all seeming antagonism to the letter of old 
creeds, he accepts the i-pirit of tlie new dispensation, his book furnishes 
abundant evidence. His verse is generally characterized by vigor, and a1 
tim<s glides with a true rhythmetic flow and ringf with a genuine poetic 
harmony." 



I-IUKHKY Ul- ^UNUKt^b 




THE VOIC^«J^«2"429 3. 



BY 



WAEKEN SUMNES BAELOW. 



Eighth Edition, loith about one-fourth additional matter 
A NEW STIPPLED STEEL-PLATE ENGSAVING OF THE AUTHOE, 

FROM A RECENT PHOTOGRAPH. 



The author has revised and enlarged " The Voice of 
Prayer," and added the whole to this Edition without 
increasing the price. His criticism on the '* Parable of the 
Prodigal Son," of vicarious atonement, &c., in this part of 
the work, is of especial interest. 

The Voice of Mature represents God in the light of 
Reason and Philosophy — in His unchangeable and glori- 
ous attributes. 
Tlie Voice of a Petoble delineates the individuality 

of Matter and Mind, fraternal Charity and Love. 
Tlie Voice of Super!!»titioil takes the cre.ds at their 
wor ', and proves by numerous passages from the Bible 
that the God of Moses has been defeated by Satan, from 
the Garden of Eden to Mount Calvary I 
Tlie Voice of JPrayer enforces the idea that our 
prayers must accord with immutable laws, else we pray 
for effects, independent of cause . 

Printed in large, clear type, on beautiful tinted paper, 
bound in beveled boards, nearly 250 pages. 



Price $1.00 J full (jilt $1.25, Postage 10 cents. 



For Sale, wholesale and retail, by the publishers, 
COLBY & RICH, Boston, Massacliiisetts. 

ALSO AT 

Eeligio-Philosopliical Publishing House, Chicago, 111. 

And AT Bookstores throughout the Coumrt. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

016 211 429 3 



Hollinger Corp. 
pH 8.5 



